Legendary batters Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers arrived in Bengaluru on Saturday to attend the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) Unbox event, where they will be inducted into the RCB Hall of Fame.
The RCB Unbox event will take place on Sunday. RCB took to their official Twitter handle to announce Gayle and de Villiers' arrival at Bengaluru. "The mothership has landed. We've an alien reporting from the Bengaluru base. Happy HOMECOMING, AB de Villiers! #PlayBold #nmmRCB #IPL2023@ABdeVilliers17," tweeted RCB.
"The Universe Boss has arrived at his favourite home. Entertainment has officially begun. Happy HOMECOMING, Chris! #PlayBold #nmmRCB #IPL2023@henrygayle," said RCB in another tweet.
The RCB Unbox event will also give fans a chance to catch their favourite stars like Faf Du Plessis, Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell, Rajat Patidar etc in the team's first practice session. The jersey for the 2023 season will also be revealed. The event will also see a reunion of RCB's three biggest stars, Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers.
de Villiers represented the side from 2011-2021 in 157 matches. He scored 4,522 runs at an average of 41.10. He scored two centuries and 37 fifties for the side at a strike rate of over 158.
Gayle represented RCB from 2011-17 in 91 matches, scoring 3,420 runs at a strike rate of over 154 and five centuries and 21 half-centuries. His best score is 175*.
RCB will start their Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season with a match against Mumbai Indians (MI) at their home arena, M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru.
Last year, RCB qualified for playoffs and finished fourth in the competition after losing to Rajasthan Royals in qualifier 2 by seven wickets.
Royal Challengers Bangalore
Squad strength: 25 players (overseas 8)
Players bought during IPL 2023 auction - Reece Topley (INR 1.9 crore), Himanshu Sharma (INR 20 lakh), Will Jacks (INR 3.2 crore), Manoj Bhandage (INR 20 lakh), Rajan Kumar (INR 70 lakh), Avinash Singh (INR 60 lakh).
Players retained - Faf du Plessis (c), Virat Kohli, Suyash Prabhudessai, Rajat Patidar, Dinesh Karthik, Anuj Rawat, Finn Allen, Glenn Maxwell, Wanindu Hasaranga, Shahbaz Ahmed, Harshal Patel, David Willey, Karn Sharma, Mahipal Lomror, Mohammed Siraj, Josh Hazlewood, Siddarth Kaul, Akash Deep.